CHAPTER 7

Rouge flew over the Floating Island. She looked for that familiar little hut where Knuckles lived. When she finally spotted it, she swooped down and landed gracefully in front of it. She knocked on the door. There was no answer. She knocked again a little louder. Silence.

"Knuckles?" She called. She opened his door and peeked her head in. She spotted a piece of paper on the table. She picked it up.

"It's from Knuckles." She said aloud.

'Dear Rouge,

If you are reading this then I am not back yet. I have gone to Gigitanko Castle. If I am not back yet, look in the top right drawer in the chest of drawers in my room.' She went into his room and pulled the drawer open. She saw a bunch of socks and a glowing object under them. She pushed them aside and picked up the purple Chaos Emerald with a gasp. 'Protect it! If you want to find me, the location to the castle is with it.

Knuckles'

Rouge looked into the drawer and found a small CD.

"This must contain the information that I need!" She exclaimed. She ran out of his room and out of the door, closing it on her way out.

****

"Tails, We still need three more emeralds! Where are they?" Shadow asked the little fox.

Tails looked at him. "Well, two of them are in City West. Let's go there." Tails said.

"Okay." They ran west toward the city.

They were almost half way there when it started to get dark. Shadow and Tails stopped. "We need to rest for the night. If we don't, who knows what danger we could run into." Tails said.

"Good," Shadow replied. He looked around. "Tails. Look over there, about half a mile up is a forest. I bet we could find shelter there."

"Yeah and maybe a nice place to cool off too. I think that I don't smell too good." Tails said, taking off into the sky.

"Well, foxes tend to have a better sense of smell than hedgehogs do." Shadow smirked.

"Yeah, and I can smell you from all the way up here!" Tails shouted from above. Shadow folded his arms.

"Oh that's cold, man, that's like burr." Shadow said. (A/N: Just a little inside joke between me and my friend Nuriko-chan. ^w^)

They ran up to the forested area and stopped. It was a lush, green, inviting and warm forest with a waterfall and a little brook. The waterfall had a little cave behind it and a perfect little thicket near the cave.

"Tails, go and take a bath in the waterfall and I will go look for firewood." Shadow said.

"But Shadow! How are we going to make a fire?" Tails asked worriedly.

"I have a way." He held up his wrist that had the fire ring on it.

"Okay." Tails bounded off in the direction of the waterfall.

Shadow walked the other way. He figured that he would follow the brook up to their little campsite and find twigs and branches left by the beavers that were building their dam further up. Ten minutes went by and he found himself back at the campsite with an armful of fire wood. He was just about there when he saw a green glow coming from the campsite. Shadow dropped the firewood and ran back to the site. There he saw Kilashandra and Lexxon arriving. Tails ran over to Shadow and hid behind him.

"Get away Kilashandra, I will handle this." Lexxon said as he cracked his knuckles. Kilashandra warped back and left Lexxon to take care of the job.

Shadow stood in front of Tails. "You won't get him! So just forget about it! Leave!!"

"Sorry, my orders tell me otherwise." The hooded Lexxon explained. Shadow ran up to Lexxon and they began to fight. Tails looked in fear at them. He heard a noise from behind him and spun around to see Kilashandra. Tails spun his tails together and flew up into the sky. Kilashandra cursed and called to Lexxon. Lexxon looked to her and Shadow look off his hood. Lexxon and Shadow froze.

"You're a." Shadow looked at Lexxon's face. The tiger looked away and pushed Shadow off him. He ran to Kilashandra and they warped away.

"Shadow? Are you okay?" Tails landed beside him.

Shadow looked at Tails. "He was a tiger."

"So?" Tails asked.

"Never mind." Shadow walked over to the firewood that he had dropped earlier. Tails followed and helped him. Shadow and Tails walked over to their little campsite and set the firewood on the ground. Shadow then activated the ring and set the wood on fire. Tails looked at Shadow.

"Shadow, don't you still have to take a shower?"

****

THUD

"Owchie!" Amy yelled when she landed on the stone chamber's floor. She looked around. It was a dark and cold room. There was a door here, too. Amy quickly got up and ran to it. She pulled on the door ring and it opened to brilliant moonlight. She didn't realize that it was so late at night. There was a half moon and many stars filling up the sky.

"I. I'm free?" Amy asked herself. She looked around and spotted rows and rows of bars along the wall. She went past them and looked into them. Each room she looked at was empty. Then she came upon a well-lighted window. She peaked into it. It was open. She saw Lexxon and Kilashandra standing in front of the 'leader'.

"You let him escape again?" He asked angrily.

"Sir, if I may explain-" Kilashandra started.

"NO! No more explaining! I want him dead or alive in this castle in three days or it will be your heads on a silver platter!!"

"But sir, there is the black hedgehog as well."

"Get him too! I don't care what you do; just get me those emeralds! And that orange fox had better be here. you have been warned." The master waved his hand and turned toward the window. Amy gasped and ducked behind a bush. The master had a puzzled look on his face and came towards the window. He looked out and Amy held her breath. The master shook his head and left. Amy exhaled.

"Anyway, I want you to leave, now." The master said. Amy looked again. The master was taking his cloak off. Amy gasped again.

"He's an Echidna?" Amy asked herself. She crept out of sight. It was the first time she had seen him without the hood. He was an echidna, slightly taller than Knuckles and a darker shade of red as well. His skin tone seemed to be darker as well. His eyes were deep and gray. He looked to be older and more intelligent than Knuckles (if that was even possible). He also had a pouch, as did Knuckles, and a tribal tattoo on his arm.

Amy ran as far as she could go along the wall but still never passed it. This was a large castle indeed. She sighed. That's when she heard a sound behind her. She spun around and only saw a dark shadow before she was knocked to the ground unconscious.

****

"Tails we had better leave." Shadow said as he stomped out the remaining embers in the campfire.

"But why? We just got situated here." Tails asked confused.

"They know where we are now. besides, I have been waiting to try out a little trick for some time now." Shadow smirked.

"What trick?" Tails asked.

"Wait and see. give me your hand." Shadow held out his hand.

"Okay." Tails blushed lightly and grasped Shadow's hand.

Shadow closed his eyes. He seemed to be concentrating. Tails wondered what was going on when a brilliant flash of red blinded him. Tails saw dots for a moment and when his vision cleared, they were in the hiding spot of the aqua Chaos Emerald. Tails looked at Shadow.

"How. how did." Tails stuttered.

"I read your thoughts and warped us here. I didn't know if I had enough energy but here we are." Shadow said. Tails felt a little nauseous and woozy.

"Tails are you okay?" Shadow asked.

"Yeah, I'll be okay." He walked over to the Emerald and took it off the pedestal that it rested on. Tails grabbed Shadow's hand and pulled him out of the room. They walked into a little comic shop. He continued to pull him out into the night and stopped to place the emerald in his pocket. Tails looked at Shadow.

"It isn't yet nine o'clock is it?" Shadow looked around and saw the clock on the bank sign. It read '8:50'.

"Ten to nine, why?" Shadow asked Tails.

"The bank closes at nine. We have to hurry!" Tails spun his tails together and took off full speed toward the bank. Shadow followed him and they were there with five minutes to spare.

Tails ran into the bank and quickly found a teller. A middle-aged man looked at Tails a bit surprised. "Yes? How may I help you?"

"I need to get the contents out of vault five-oh-seven please."

"Do you have your ID?" The man asked.

Tails growled. Shadow became surprised at Tails' action.

"Who else has two tails? My name is Miles Prower!"

"Oh yes, Mr. Prower." the teller said. "I will get you that right away." The teller got up off of his seat and walked into the backroom. He came out a few minutes later and emerged with a package in his hands. He handed it to Tails.

"Have a nice night." The teller waved.

Shadow and Tails exited the bank and Tails ripped the package open. There was the orange Chaos Emerald. Tails took out the cell phone that Rouge gave him. She hit the speed dial and the phone rang for a few minutes.

"Hello?" The voice on the other line asked.

"Rouge, Its Tails. Look, we found three more Chaos Emeralds."

"Oh where are you?"

"City West." Tails said.

"Okay. I gotta go. See you later." Rouge said hurriedly. It sounded like she was on a computer.

"Okay." Tails said, "Bye Rouge." Tails hung up the phone and put it away.

"We have four of them. Knuckles has the last one." Tails said. Shadow nodded.

"But we can't go. I can't warp that far. but I can take us somewhere very nice if you'd like." Shadow said. Tails grabbed his hand.

"Let's go. I trust you." Shadow concentrated again and the flash appeared. Tails opened his eyes to a truly marvelous sight. The whole city was lit up. Tails looked down and gasped. They were on a bridge.

"Radical Highway." Shadow informed. Tails sat down with a sigh. Shadow looked over to Tails.

"Tails? You okay?" Shadow asked concerned. He sat down next to Tails.

"It's Sonic." Tails had tears welling up into his eyes. He looked at Shadow.

"What about him?" Shadow asked, scooting closer to Tails. Tails leaned over.

"I don't know if we'll EVER get him back alive." Tails looked over to Shadow again. "Shadow, do you-" Shadow cut him off.

"Tails, I promised." He grabbed Tails' hand, "To help you find him." Shadow stroked Tails' cheek. "I'm going to keep that promise."

"Shadow. I. uh." Shadow moved in closer and they both closed their eyes.

"HEY!" Shouted a voice. Tails and Shadow's ears twitched and quickly separated. They looked toward the direction of the sound.

Rouge hovered in front of them. "Look-what-I-found!" She said cockily. She held out the Purple Chaos Emerald. Tails and Shadow sweatdropped and Shadow sighed.

Rouge flew in between the two boys and sat down. "And look at this." She held up a little disk, "The disk that contains the coordinates to Gigitanko Castle." She stated proudly. Tails and Shadow looked at each other. Then looked back at Rouge. She smiled warmly.

"By the way, what were you doing before I arrived?"

Shadow and Tails sweatdropped.

**** Thanks to all the people that have been reading the story! And especially to Vincent Valentine and E-Chan who have been reading since-like- the beginning. I really appreciate that! I hope that it hasn't been too rushed. I haven't had too much time and I want the story flow to pick up. I think that it won't be much longer. I am thinking of a sequel, but it doesn't matter. This is only my first fanfiction here anyway. If you readers want it, I will write one. Let's just try to finish this first. OH! And E-chan is still latched on to my leg! I just can't shake her!! ^w^ ~ 3

Love you readers, You are worse than my band geeks! (I play the flute and oboe.) Ha! Have a real love for fanfiction!

Love ya lots! ^w^

Taiora Yaganouchi

P.S. Yes, Taichi Yagami + Sora Takenouchi = Taiora Yaganouchi. You caught me. I like Digimon. ^w^;

P.P.S. Oh one more thing and I SWEAR I'm done. That part with Shadow and Tails almost kissing was something I had drawn out on paper like a comic. I may scan it in when I get my website up and running. Thankies!!